A rant about Cleveland fans.....

[johnnybeef]

I would like to tell everyone a little bit about me before I make this rant. I grew up in Akron Ohio, about a 35 minute drive from Cleveland Stadium. Some of my fondest memories are going to the mistake by the lake to watch Indians baseball games with my father, which were memories that my father shared with his father. I didn't care so much that they were terrible, I just enjoyed going to the game and rooting the lovable losers on. In the mid 90's I remember when my dad talking about this new beautiful state of the art ball-park that the Indians were building and how he and a couple of his friends were going to buy season tickets there because it looked like a great place to watch a game. As it turned out, not only was it a great place to watch a game, but, there were also some great teams to watch in that stadium. As most of you know, there were 455 straight sell outs in that stadium, and many of my good high school memories involved going games with my boys in the summer when i didnt have a game myself to play, or playoff games in the fall with my family. The 90's came and went, and the beginning of the new milenium brought about that familiar feeling of cheering for a bad team. But, this team was different. They had some outstanding young talent that all of the analysts were saying were gonna be something special. Well, for once, the analysts were right. And this spring was as excited as I have been about baseball since 98. This has been an incredible team to watch (imo more fun than some of the 90s teams) and it pains me to see this team going out and playing their hearts out day in day out to a half full stadium. All throughout college I got accused of being a band wagon cleveland indians fan. I always denied it saying that The Tribe have some of the best fans in the country. Man was I wrong. I am so sick of seeing a 1/2 full stadium in Cleveland.....

Thanks for reading.
Johnny

ps. i didnt proof read cuz im in a hurry so excuse anything that doesnt make sense.

[sublime]

just insert random spaces [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[LBJ]

Cleveland is a football town. The fans care about football 10x more than baseball and basketball combined.

I had season tickets with my dad from 1995-2001 for the Indians, and I know part of the reason it was sold out was the power hitting and the lure of the new stadium.

It's sad that it will take a 105 win team to sell out the Jake now, and a 2 win team in football to sell out Cleveland Browns Stadium, but that's how it is in Cleveland.

[Iplayboard]

So much of ticket sales are season tickets and group sales that are done way in advance. If the Indians make the playoffs, attendance will climb next year.

[KJS]

I'm with you. The team deserves better. I asked my Dad (Westlake resident) about it and he said Cleveland is a football town, plus the economy is not that great. Still, they should be selling out with this team on the field.

KJS

[MarkL444]

you have to be kidding me that the indiants arent selling out right now. man, that is lame.

[adios]

I grew up in Clevetown and saw my first Indians game in 1957, I remember it to this day (Indians got kicked by the Tigers). I'm with you on this. Yeah Cleveland's a football town but I think that current owners created some bad feelings there with getting rid of some poplular players when they went into a rebuilding phase. Management was right though and the rebuilt team has better balance and there's no way that the Indians can pay the kind of money for players that the Yankees and Red Sox can while still making a profit. For all the scorn heaped on the owners and Shapiro when the team started the rebuilding phase, the results have been good. Even if the Indians don't make the post season this year they've put out a very competitive team that wins and plays well. What more can you ask for as a baseball fan?